Articles

You Can Do It

You Can Do It

Richard T. Hendee, Editor
The Silver Fox Advisor

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How often have you heard someone, or maybe even yourself, say – “I can’t do that”? Well, I recently heard a story about what one of our Silver Fox Advisors experienced that I just had to write about and share with our readers. 

Seventy-eight-year-old Silver Fox Advisor and Houston Attorney George Connelly recently won a dance contest, yes you read that right, a dance contest. George was never much of a dancer, and he will even tell you he had two left feet when it came to dancing, even the slow dances. At parties, weddings and social events George watched from the side lines as others danced the night away.

After noticing a dance studio in a strip center near his home, at age seventy-six George signed up for private dance lessons. After a year and half of lessons his dance instructor encouraged George to enter a dance contest. After overcoming major doubts, George decided “what do I have to lose”, so he and his dance instructor signed up for a dance contest that started at 7:00 a.m. and concluded at 10:00 p.m. George qualified as a “newcomer”. After 40 two and a half minute dances, including a solo performance by George, he was crowned “the Best Newcomer”, a title he is very proud of and one which was very well deserved.

I share this story with you so the next time when you are in a position where you think you can’t do something, think of George Connelly who at age seventy-six identified something that was important to him and went out and accomplished even more than he envisioned was possible.

Most successful entrepreneurs never give up on their passion. They chase their dreams and somehow make it work. Successful entrepreneurs also inspire others to follow in their footsteps and be successful themselves.

George story’s inspired me to think that it is never too late to chase that dream and see where it leads. I probably will not win any dance contest in the future, but if don’t at least put my dancing shoes on, I will never know.

About the author: 

Richard Hendee is a Silver Fox Advisor and the owner of Horizon Associates, Inc. Richard is known as “The Business Advisor”. He has been providing business advisor, consulting and mentoring services to small and mid-sizes businesses for more than 45 years. Richard can be reached at 832.437.3089 or by e-mail at [email protected]

Business Tips From the Editor - January 2024

BUSINESS TIPS FROM THE EDITOR  January 2024

Richard T. Hendee, Editor
The Silver Fox Advisor

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Last month’s Business Tip outlined the reason for doing a 2024 Business Plan. This month I want to discuss the other key element of an annual business plan, and that is an annual budget.

 Annual budgets are a good way for a business to stay on track financially. Like creating a business plan, if you have never done an annual budget before, it can be a challenging task, but once your budget template has been developed, each year gets easier to complete. The budget process should start with an annual forecast and then be broken down on a quarterly or even a monthly basis.

 A budget should not be something that is done at the beginning of the year and then not looked at until the end of the year. The budget needs to be monitored and measured vs. the actual results on a quarterly or ideally a monthly basis. As an example, if advertising was budgeted at $20,000 for the year and after the first quarter the actual advertising expense was $15,000 that leaves only $5,000 for the rest of the year. That may be O.K. if that is your business cycle, but most businesses typically advertise the entire year. In this case, to stay on track with your budget you may need to look at some of the other expense line items where you can move some funds into advertising. Or, maybe the additional advertising dollars spent in the first quarter generated additional unplanned revenues that more than offset the additional advertising expense.

 Another point I would like to make regarding the budget process: The budget almost never will match up exactly to what the actual results will be. If you try and create a budget that does that, you will be beyond frustrated. The budget, like the business plan, is a road map to guide your business during the year. Think about the last big trip you took. You planned out your route, but as you actually did the traveling, you ran into a detour that took you off your planned course. You probably pulled over and determined a side course that you could take to get you back on track. That is exactly the process you should follow when monitoring your business plan and budget throughout the year.

 One final thought. Without a formal business plan and budget, you and your business will likely not be as successful as you would like or as you and it can be. Getting up in the morning and going into your business without a plan and budget, you will probably find yourself putting our fires and chasing shiny objects all year long and ending up at the same place you did when the year started, or just maybe behind where the year started.

 Is this the year that you do something different and create that business plan and budget? If you need help or assistance, we encourage you to visit our Web-site at www.silverfox.org and learn more about the Silver Fox Advisors, and how they can assist you with your business needs, as well as discover more about our great programs and community outreach endeavors.